Experiences of Ethiopian Evaluation Association and the practice of Evaluation in Ethiopia

1. Experiences of Ethiopian Evaluation Association and the practice of Evaluation in Ethiopia Presented by Yohannes Belihu Desta 2017

2. Outline of presentation • Background about Ethiopia • Ethiopian Evaluation Association establishment … • The practice of Evaluation in Ethiopia • Institutionalizing Evaluation in Ethiopia • The International NGO M&E Experience in Ethiopia • Challenges of Evaluation In Ethiopia • Opportunities for EEvA • Challenges of EEvA • Way forward

3. Background Ethiopia - • Capital : Addis Ababa/ new flower in Amharic? • Julian calendar, calendar is 7 years and 8 months behind Gregorian calendar. (September – August) • Currency: Birr (1 USD = 22.89) • Official/Working/ Language : Amharic • Population - 98 million (second largest in Africa) with more than 85 Ethnic groups • Federal State – 9 state and 2 administrative cities

4. Welcome to Ethiopia!

5. History and Archaeological record Is an African nation that was not colonized, the owner of an ancient written language. Ethiopia is a country with the longest archaeological records and findings. The 3.4 million years old LUCY (Australopithecus Afarensis) or DINKNESH (which simply means wonderful) was found in 1974 in Ethiopia’s Afar region.

6. Seat of regional and Int’l organizations Host nation for the headquarters of the African Union and the economic commission for Africa (UNECA). The AU was established on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa

7. EthiopianEvaluationAssociation

8. Establishment of EEvA • Both before and during 1999, a number of professionals had felt the need for an evaluation association • However, this expressed need and the wish for an association did not go very far until UNICEF‐Ethiopia took over the initiative to organize • Through a meeting arranged by UNICEF at Hilton Hotel on 15 May 2007, an organizing Committee was nominated.

9. Establishment . . . Establishment • Petition was then signed by 10 professionals and this petition was addressed to the Ministry of Justice to get its legality to function as a professional association in July 2007 and a later on the 23rd of October 2007. • The committee had the full collaboration and support of UNICEF‐Ethiopia as well as that of the Ethiopian Statistical Association. • During the period between July 2007 and August 13, 2008 ( the date EEvA attained legal certificate), the Founding and Organizing Committee took the following steps:

10. Establishment … • The inaugural conference of EEvA was organized on June 6, 2009 with the participation of more than 130 people. • EEvA is reregistered in 2010 as National Professional Evaluation Association under the new professional and NGO laws

11. Membership EEvAhas five types of memberships: 1. Regular Members, 2. Student Members, 3. Institutional Members

12. Vision and Mission • Vision “See EEvA as a centre of excellence in competency and standards of M&E” • Mission EEvA’s mission is to engage and enable M&E professionals to contribute significant part in the socio-economic development of the country by way of knowledge generation, awareness creation, capacity building, advocacy and rendering model service in evaluation.

13. Guiding Principles of EEvA • It is a non-government, non-profit making secular • professional association • It is a knowledge generation and model evaluation service giving organization • It operates within the provisions of Proclamation No. 621/2009 and the directives given by the Charitable Organizations Agency and EEvAs constitution which is also accepted by the Agency. • It emphasizes seeking results through learning – via monitoring and evaluation. • All members have equal rights in the association which is governed by basic democratic procedures • As a national organization it aims at establishing branches within the country as well as global networks as needed.

14. Principles EEvAbelieves that Monitoring should be guided by the following basic principles: • Scope – monitoring should cover all activities and planned outputs regardless of the duration and size of budget • Intentionally – monitoring should be based on clear objectives, schedules and feedback process • Performance indicators – monitoring should focus on indicators of achievement already established for the programme or project • Quality stamp – assessment of results should be validated by systems check, field visits, client surveys and audits • Participation – stakeholder and staff participation should be used in the process of constructing indicators and benchmarks and validating outcomes.

15. Objectives EEvA’s OBJECTIVES. 1. Create a forum for professional evaluation based multi-disciplinary discussions. 2. To promote useful evaluations that support development in Ethiopia and give professional support as the case demands. 3. To encourage the development and publication of high quality evaluation practice, research and theory development based on Ethiopian experiences and expertise thereby enhancing the building of evaluation capacity in Ethiopia. 4. To facilitate networking and information sharing on evaluation in Ethiopia. 5. To be a reference point for evaluation information and methodology relevant to Ethiopia.

16. Objectives EEvA’s OBJECTIVES. 6. To promote and share Ethiopian evaluation expertise at relevant regional and international forums and events. 7. To develop & maintain professional relationships with other similar local and international organizations with a view toward fostering the growth of professional practice in Ethiopia. 8. To promote evaluation as a profession and support national ownership.

17. Organizational Structure of EEvA • General Assembly • Executive Board • Secretariat office • Sub-Committees: • Capacity Building • Editorial • Resource Mobilization • Evaluation Service

18. Efforts of EEvA to improve M&E process in the country - Provided training to association members, gov’t employees and non-government employees - Prepared strategic plan and it is on implementation - Evaluation service guideline is prepared - Evaluation standard development is on the way - Created networks with different organizations - Members conducted researches on M&E in their own field - Evaluation Journal Publication is on the way - Conducted General Assembly

19. The Practice of Evaluation in Ethiopia Like other countries striving to instill democratic governance, ensure sustainable development and reduce poverty, Ethiopia has put in place a monitoring and evaluation system to follow up the progress of its; - Development policies, - Sectoraldevelopment plans, - Programmesand projects. It has been operational since the 1960s. With the coming of the poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSP) process, the country has harmonized its development plans with the PRSP and Millennium Development Goal planning to realize an integrated system.

20. The Practice of Evaluation in Ethiopia This has benefited the country in three important ways. • The process has reduced the cost of managing development interventions by avoiding a separate institutional setting for each of the three interventions. • It has improved targeting of the poor by providing a multi-dimensional framework for addressing poverty and development. • It has made the process of delivering public services slim, responsive, transparent and cost-effective.

21. Institutional setting of Evaluation in Ethiopia It can be seen in four major perspectives: • Evaluation of development strategies put in place by the governing party to guide the overall development of the nation; 2. Structural setting for evaluating the PRSPs– The system was built on the welfare monitoring system programme led by the welfare monitoring unit of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED), established in 1996. Information is generated by the Central Statistical Agency and MoFED, using surveys and analytical studies tailored to provide precise socio-economic data.

22. Institutional setting of Evaluation in Ethiopia 3. Evaluation of sectoral development programmes • Education sector development programme, MOE • Health sector development programme, MOH • Small and medium enterprises development programme, SMEA The evaluation of these sector development programmes is a collaborative effort of the ministries, regional bureaus and development partners. It is unique in involving many independent evaluations conducted by international development agencies, bilateral cooperation agencies and international financial institutions, in accordance with their respective interests.

23. Institutional setting of Evaluation in Ethiopia 4. Institutional structure for evaluating high-impact projects. • Despite long years of experience in project-based interventions, the country still does not have an integrated project evaluation system. Specifically, ex-post evaluation and impact evaluation are the forgotten ends at this level. • Although finance and economic development units at federal (MoFED), regional and District level are responsible for project evaluation, the system has not been integrated.

24. Challenges of the Ethiopian Evaluation system • Inadequate attention to evaluation, both at strategic and grass-roots level, which can be partly attributed to mismanagement of previous experiences; • Unclear roles and responsibilities among evaluating units at different levels; • Lack of commitment, emerging from the tendency to look at evaluation as an imposition from development partners and international financial institutions;

25. Challenges of the Ethiopian Evaluation system • Poor quality and irrelevant information, in terms of ignoring outreach, effect and impact of policies, programmes and projects in designing information collection platforms; • Poor accountability for failures; • Lack of integration among actors in the evaluation systems at different levels;

26. Challenges of the Ethiopian Evaluation system • Problems of mainstreaming lessons drawn from evaluation results; • Excessive dependence on reports rather than first-hand information-gathering and cross-referencing mechanisms; • Poor evaluation capacity at both individual and systemic levels, partly a result of the little attention given to evaluation at the strategic level;

27. Challenges of the Ethiopian Evaluation system • Poor integration among components of the system, partly a result of ‘mandate overlap between government agencies and conflicting interests between stakeholders; • With all its problems, the country’s evaluation system has born some fruit. • This is expressed in the rising demand for on-time release of annual progress reports and the increased use of evaluation results in project and programme design and academic research.

28. Opportunities-EEvA to achieve its vision, mission and objective • Increased trend of information need for decision – Government, Public, private • Experienced professional available • Publication and dissemination of evaluation guidelines by MoFED; • Growing attention to the role of evaluation as an instrument of good governance; • Evaluation is becoming a profession – University graduates are coming (Qualified professionals)

29. Opportunities-EEvA to achieve its vision, mission and objective • The platform is in place – association exists • Sister Evaluation associations • Partners support - UNICEF • Evaluation as a discipline is cross cutting – to solicit resource

30. Challenges of EEvA • Financial constraints due to limited numbers of members and meager contributions • Government regulations limits all associations to raise their own fund except members contributions

31. Way forward • Create strong networking among M&E associations in Africa and Worldwide • Create forums to - Dialogues on M&E challenges in Ethiopia, - Exchange M&E journals • Establish online trainings for M&E practitioner for the betterment of qualified skills • Develop standards, operational guidelines and update the existing

32. Reference • EEvA strategic plan • UNDP - Proceedings from the international conference on national evaluation capacities 15-17 december 2009, Casablanca, Kingdom of Morocco

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